This invention relates to an apparatus and process for the production of hosiery and, more particularly, to an improved hosiery article trimming and seam flattening system.
Conventional methods for knitting of hosiery articles, especially men's and children's socks, require that the hose be knitted with an opening across the top of the toe portion. This opening must be subsequently closed in a separate operation. Typically, the opening is closed by sewing opposite edges of the opening together utilizing overedge stitching, while the hose is in an inside-out condition. Such an operation leaves a raised, uneven seam across the toe portion. A still further operation must flatten the seam across the toe portion so that the hose may be confortably worn and present an attractive appearance.
Additionally, the process of knitting the hose may result in a plurality of unfinished threads hanging from the hose. Therefore, a trimming operation must be performed to trim away these unfinished threads in order for the sock to be confortably worn and appear presentable.
The seam across the toe portion runs generally perpendicular to the length of the hose. The use of the overedge stitching enables flattening of the seam by stretching the hose along its length, that is, perpendicular to the seam.
The apparatus disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,532,258 is intended to stretch hosiery in order to flatten the toe seam. The apparatus disclosed includes a vertical turntable or turret rotating about a horizontal axis, and a plurality of tubular members of uniform length and diameter extending horizontally from the turret. The turret is rotated intermittently so that each tubular member may arrive and be operated on at each of four work stations.
At the first work station, hose is placed around the tubular member with the toe seam inside out adjacent to the end of the tubular member opposite the turret. The turret is then rotated so that the tubular member and hose arrive at work station two.
At work station two, an extendable stretching device which is coaxial with the tubular member extends through the end of the tubular member, drawing with it the end of the hose including the toe seam. The stretching device is conical, so that its diameter becomes greater than the diameter of the tubular member. Thus, when the stretching device is inserted in the tubular member, the stretching device contacts the tubular member and sandwiches the hose in a tight grip between the stretching device and the tubular member. The front portion of the stretching device is then extended away from the conical body section and further into the tubular member thereby stretching the toe seam. The sandwich of the hose between the conical section and the tubular member prevents the upper portion of the hose from slipping within the tubular member to relieve the force exerted on the hose by the stretching operation. After the stretching operation, the stretching means is removed from the interior of the tubular member and the turret is rotated to bring the tubular member to work station three.
At work station three, a partial vacuum is applied at the turret end of the tubular member and rotating disks adjacent to the exterior of the tubular member roll the top end of the hose toward the end of the tubular member. This operation allows the majority of the hose to be drawn within the tubular member in a rightside-out orientation. Screens at the turret end of the tubular member prevent the hose from being removed therefrom by the partial vacuum. The turret is then rotated so that the tubular member arrives at work station four.
At work station four, a positive pressure is applied at the turret end of the tubular member so that the hose is expelled at the opposite end into a removal tube. The turret is rotated so that the tubular member arrives at work station one for reloading.
One deficiency of the prior art apparatus described above is that the positive pressure applied at work station four tends to revert the hose to an inside-out orientation prior to expulsion from the tubular member. The final orientation of the hose is dependant on a number of factors, including the coefficient of friction between the hose material and the tubular member material as well as the amount of partial vacuum and positive pressure applied at work stations three and four. Therefore, the items expelled at work station four must be individually sorted by hand to determine which items are inside-out and revert those items to rightside-out orientation as necessary.
The apparatus altogether fails to address the problem of unfinished threads extending from the hose.